With larger cities and larger projects, it is not unusual for this process to take many months. And at the federal level, many procurement pro- cesses take longer than a year from first announcement to Notice to Proceed. When technical folks are asked to provide information for a proposal or qualifications package, they often want to finish the “real work” on their desks before turning to this non-billable work — even if that means weeks before they can provide that information. These sched- ules give them a clue as to how long they might be “between” projects if their responses are not timely. Cross-selling services
the project understanding based on the RFQ/RFP and on conversations with the client and others about such questions as “why now?” I also know many marketers/business developers who believe they can write the project approach. However, my preference is that both sections should be written by a technical person, someone who truly under- stands every process that must be implemented, every step that must be done, why it must be done, why it must be done now, how much time it will take, and what it will cost. And, of course, the technical folks should be responsible for the sched- ule and the cost proposal.
Very few clients are looking to plan, design, and construct something that has never been thought of before. How- ever, many are looking for a process that will result in an innovative process, leading to a creative design that will be faster, easier, and/or less expensive to build and operate. A marketer/business development person starting with the approach from a previous proposal and “tweaking” it for the RFQ/RFP is more likely to end up with a “same old, same old” approach. Only a technical person can develop an innovative approach to the project. And only the technical person who will man- age the project when it has been won can address the issue of how a particular project team organization and manage- ment style will maximize the creativity and efficiency of your team. A/E technical staff are all about turning complexity into a set of simple, easy- to-understand-and-manage activities. They look at an extensive list of “parts” and a set of complex instructions and see how a thing comes together into a buildable, usable facility.
Many A/E firms are multidisciplinary. Some provide both architectural and engineering services, as well as planning and construction management. Many en- gineering firms provide civil, structural, mechanical, electrical, and environmen- tal engineering, as well as construction engineering — and many also provide environmental services. One of the first components of a firm’s “onboarding” process must be a session on what other services the firm performs through other departments, divisions, or branch offices. This cross-selling can be critical to a firm’s success. Very early in my career, I joined an environmental firm with a few hundred employees in a half-dozen offices. We were just beginning to branch out into a variety of engineering areas and hired a person to lead our transportation section. About a year after that person joined the firm, she proposed on a project and invited a subcontractor to join the team to provide the full range of environmental services. When asked by the COO why she didn’t give those services to the firm’s environ- mental division, she asked, “We have an environmental division?”
The kind of internal marketing presented here can help A/E techni- cal staff understand the complexity of the overall marketing/business development process by showing them how many moving parts there are, how those parts interact with each other, how each impacts all the others, and how marketing and business development fit into their focus on the “real work” (i.e., the billable tasks). Think of the variety show act in which one person keeps 10 plates of different sizes balanced and spinning on three- or four-foot rods. BERNIE SIBEN, CPSM , is owner and principal consultant at The Siben Consult, LLC, an independent A/E marketing and strategic consultant located in Austin, Texas. Contact him at siben@sibenconsult.com or at 559-901-9596.
At the time, environmental projects were responsible for more than half of the firm’s revenue. But nobody — including the division man- ager — had taken the time to talk with this woman about what else the firm did besides the transportation work she was pursuing for her new department. So every project she pursued was a collection of missed opportunities. Role of technical staff The role of the technical staff in marketing/business development en- compasses anything that requires technical knowledge. It is often possible for marketing/business development staff to write
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csengineermag.com
february 2018
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